Music to your ears
SwahilyaSwahilya
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Music is now a billion-dollar industry that offers many promising avenues, and you can be sure of stepping into this career on a successful note. Swahilya talks to students and researchers who have made it big in music.
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M. Nandhini
"LEARNING MUSIC. Well, focus on your academic studies too. You can't just depend on music for your career." A warning signal from adults that many a student had heard while in school. Today, it is not the case. With music developing into a multi-billion dollar industry, and a variety of genres such as the Hindustani, Carnatic, fusion, and film music offering a wide range of avenues of growth, more students are pursuing it as a career option.
M. Lalitha
`Mahanadhi' Shobhana who came to limelight with her song `Sriranga Ranganathanin,' in Kamal Hasan's starrer, Mahanadhi, has completed her Bachelor's and Master's in Music through correspondence and is now studying M.A. Communication and M.Phil through correspondence.
K. Harish Narayan
"My first full-fledged concert was at the Thanjavur World Tamil Conference when I was 12 years. Now, I have given more than 100 individual albums and also perform in concerts in India and abroad," she says. Not stopping with Carnatic music, she has also got a degree in Western Classical from the Trinity College of Music, London, and she is also a pianist. "I decided even when I was in school that music was going to be my profession and have stuck to this decision despite my good scores in Commerce in Plus-Two. I love teaching and have an idea of starting my own music school."
A. Bhavadharini
A. Bhavadharini, a keyboard and veena player, has been a disciple of D.K. Pattammal for the past 17 years. With a Master's in Microbiology, she takes up R & D projects in the subject.
Sudheer Warrier
"There are so many avenues open to musicians — recordist in studios, starting a music school, establishing a music library, distributor of cassettes, public performances, teaching in schools and colleges, research and teaching."
S. Hariharan
But unlike a career in IT or Communication, preparations for music as a profession begin not after acquiring degrees, but at a very tender age. M. Nandhini, a Ph.D. research scholar in the inter-disciplinary areas of Music and Information Science strongly, says, "Like in Korea and Japan, schools should give importance to music and make it compulsory in the curriculum. Music career happens not just because you have a degree. Talent and aptitude also count."
Shobhana
M. Lalitha who has given numerous public performances in India and abroad on violin along with her sister Nandhini, is now the co-ordinator (Music), Institute of Distance Education, University of Madras. "Yes. Music can be the main profession. Some years ago, the opportunities were few. Now there are lots of jobs as performers or in the academic field. However, jobs in this field are still less in comparison to other careers like information technology."
At a discussion in Chennai. (From left) Sudheer Warrier, S. Hariharan, K. Harish Narayan, A. Bhavadharini, Shobhana, M. Nandhini and M. Lalitha. -- Photos: Vino John
S. Hariharan, who is doing Ph.D on the inter-relationship between melody and Mridangam, K. Harish Narayan, who is doing doctoral research on `Graham as an element in Talam,' and Sudheer Warrier, studying rare ragas in Kathakali, chose science and math groups in their Higher Secondary but moved into music, doubting if they could make a career out of it.
On the hazards of the profession, the group asserts in unison about how hectic it can get with lot of travelling and the need for a strong family backing right from the time of learning as children and how important it is that they have friendly neighbours. There are not many who will take kindly to the thumping of the mridangam or more so the blaring of a nadaswaram or even a vocalist practising the same tune again and again at 4 a.m.
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